Jennifer Wheeler started at the Rockford Register Star in May 2012. She is out and about in Boone County writing about issues such as education, county and city government, and other news. She grew up in the Windy City and graduated from the
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Jennifer Wheeler started at the Rockford Register Star in May 2012. She is out and about in Boone County writing about issues such as education, county and city government, and other news. She grew up in the Windy City and graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Boone County Board members have accused County Board Chairman Bob Walberg of wanting to appoint individuals to leadership positions without officials knowing a thing about the candidates.

Member Cathy Ward asked the board on Wednesday to reconsider the appointments made at the June meeting since not everyone was told who was being nominated beforehand. At first she thought she had missed the memo in her board packet but quickly discovered she had never received it.

Walberg said he never knew some members hadn’t received the list and wasn’t informed of the issue until Wednesday night.

Although the motion to reconsider failed, it didn’t stop a few members from shedding light on how appointments were made.

I wrote this story about the issue yesterday; however, there are a few more colorful tidbits of information that didn’t make it to print. Read them below:

First, Walberg selected a few members to serve on the Mental Health Advisory Committee after attending a public event about mental health. He said he was so moved by the speakers and attendees that he asked people then and there to serve on the group.

The positions were never published in a newspaper or online.

Current committee members had discussed these particular candidates at public meetings, though. Some of the candidates had even attended them as a community member before being appointed.

Second, there wasn’t a new posting published to recruit an individual to serve on the Zoning Board of Appeals. Instead, Walberg used candidates who weren’t selected from a previous notice.

He said it’s difficult to recruit people to serve and few individuals responded last time. However, he never told the dozens of people who attend ZBA meetings about the position.

Third, Walberg never notified board members of his suggested appointees until Monday evening – 48 hours before the board meeting. It resulted in some officials, like Ron Wait, not having the information in the board packet since he picked it up on Friday.

Walberg said he had sent an email to each member immediately after selecting the individuals, in addition to placing a memo in the remaining board packets.

Fourth, each appointment was voted on individually during Wednesday’s meeting.

Typically board members approve the appointments during the consent agenda unless someone asks to pull an item from the bunch. The practice was put in place to speed up meetings, which can quickly become lengthy if leaders are forced to vote on each item separately.